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Show childlike ecstasy. ^7 L Suddenly I began to run through the picnic area and up the mountainsides, then down again, leaping in my bare feet, disregarding the slash of rocks. I imagined myself to be a deer nearly flying' as she broke for I did not know what. Was she running for or from something? I stopped all of a sudden in front of Ed and looked into his eyes. He held out a primrose. "Smell i t ." I thought I had never smelled such delicacy, such sweetness. His eyes held promise of the same. "One k i s s , " Brian's voice broke in, "and a l l the flowers and wild animals will disappear." His voice was warning, laying claim to my p r i v a t e f o r e s t s. 'lie walked to the bridge and watched the rushing water. It seemed to me t h a t the r i v e r ' s small channel held the melted snows of a thousand winters, the liquid ice of a hundred wars. Ed stood at one end of the bridge, Brian at the other. I could walk to either one of them - or I could jump. I wanted to jump. Shame overtook me. My mother, my mothers, would never find themselves in such a s i t u a t i o n . Their l i v e s were clear-cut; there was no purpose in a woman having two men. A man had more than one wife because he could procreate through many at one time, could offer more souls a mortal body, an endeavor Pleasing to the Lord. But a woman could bear only one child within a ~ r = . term; if she had more than one husband, she would only confuse her f i d e l i t y , would wonder who was the father of the child she carried. How had I allowed even the hint of t h i s confusion to Srow? I a s k e d myself, gazing at the churning ..waters. My husband's dearest friend - perhaps his only true friend - |